


Eru and Númenor’s division

by Raaf



Series: Meta Analyses [4]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Meta, Númenor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26735764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raaf/pseuds/Raaf
Summary: A meta of the King's Men's view on Eru.
Series: Meta Analyses [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923727
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Eru and Númenor’s division

The divide in Númenor between the King’s Men and the Faithful is mainly religious. The Faithful are in favour of obeying the Valar’s teaching and the King’s Men reject their teaching. That is all fairly straight-forward. It’s a simple and frequent assumption to extend that to the King’s Men also rejecting Eru. Except, it seems that they didn’t.

In Morgoth’s Ring we get this interesting bit (which prompted this post) about Sauron’s motives with the Melkor cult in Akallabêth (emphasis mine):

“ **To wean one of the God-fearing from their allegiance** it is best to propound another unseen object of allegiance and another hope of benefits; propound to him a Lord who will sanction what he desires and not forbid it.”

It’s Pharazôn who Sauron targets with the Melkor cult. In other words, Pharazôn and his King’s Men followers are the ones being described as God-fearing and needing to have their allegiance to Eru weaned.

This holds out with how we see the divide play out in Akallabêth. The rebellious kings only neglected their observances. The specific things that are mentioned as neglected are offering the first fruits to Eru and ascending Meneltarma, both lapses being listed as part Númenor’s growing hedonism, and tending to the White Tree, a symbolic gift from Valinor which has nothing directly to do with Eru. Before Sauron starts his cult, Ar-Gimilzôr was the only king to not hold observances for Eru at all. The reason Gimilzôr does this, that he ‘revered nothing’, is phrased as something noteworthily unusual. It seems the King’s Men were lax abut their religion, but that they still saw Eru as their God.

Tolkien’s intention was that the Valar are treated by the characters in the same light as the Saints are treated by a Catholic (Letter 153). If you focus on just the religious question, and leave out all the morally objectionable actions bundled in with the King’s Men’s faction, then the King’s Men’s view on the Valar basically makes them the Protestant equivalents in the setting. They can have a reasonable and intellectually consistent philosophic position to say that Manwë shouldn’t be allowed to direct Eru’s worshippers. Especially since Manwë self-admittedly does not actually know what Eru’s intentions are for Men.

Since the two parties _are_ bundled in with a host of other standpoints however, the divisions must have been less clear-cut than Elendil’s narrative presents. There probably were members of the Faithful who refused to participate in the King’s Men’s actions, but were unhappy about accepting Manwë’s authority. Just as there probably were members of the King’s Men who were devoutly convinced of their stance, but were unhappy about the awful policies the Kings were undertaking.


End file.
